Quick Tips from a Noob

[Solomon]

Vets - Please respond with comments if I am totally off base on any of this.

Starting off - Enter a game and go to your magic screen and select 'Show Unavailable' and use the hover pop ups on different research goals to learn what requirements are for an early summon that looks useful. The starting recruitable units are generally trash and you receive a decent allowance of free mana upkeep for summoned units. Target an early useful troop (I like Dire Wolves, but apparently flyers are even better for quickly draining mana nodes) and design your Wizard to help you unlock that summon asap once you start.

The first recruitables I get are archers, build Archery Range in your Wizard Tower, if you can manage to give them 'Mark of Air' buff - they get ranged avoidance and will do much better against enemy skirmishers or ranged units.

Also simple quality of life - I had trouble seeing clearly where my borders were, and I realized the color of your banner (at the last step before launching a new game) background doubles as the color for your borders. I was using green (Elves of course) and it was somewhat hard to tell exactly where my borders were. I now use black because it makes the borders really pop.

First thing you build is a farm, second a logging camp because almost everything needs lumber to build. After that it depends on terrain and special resources within reach. If you don't get a 'fertile soil' or other food bonus in your starting province, especially if you don't have any grassland, I would reroll the map. Maybe hard core veterans take what they get, but having a farm special and logging camp special are a huge boost in the early game.

Focus on quests in early game - you get great rewards for completion from gold, to influence, to free followers.

Fun game, incredible depth. Thanks to dev(s). Looking forward to seeing the game evolve.

[Gilmoy]

Originally posted by Solomon:

The first recruitables I get are archers ...

Agreed. Ranged anything is good, because of free alpha-strike kills.
Using the old box-based combat engine, rounds 1-5 are for Skirmish and ranged units.
Drag your ranged units into the Skirmish box, and they get 5 rounds of shots.
Or leave them in your Center/Left/Right boxes, and they'll shoot as soon as they're in range, usually rounds 4-5.

Later, I prefer melee units with Ambush, for alpha-strike melee attacks in rounds 1-5 with no enemy Retaliation. If they also have Skirmish, you can drag them into the Skirmish box.

If they don't have Skirmish, you can manually assign them to their army's Scouts group, which makes them auto-deploy into the Skirmish box, even if you can't drag them there.
You can also do this with units that don't have Ambush, but then every Skirmish melee attack can trigger enemy Retaliation attacks, which is less fun.

Originally posted by Solomon:

First thing you build is a farm, second a logging camp because almost everything needs lumber to build.

Yes. I usually build 1 farm, then 8-10 trade pacts for long-term income, and only then build sites, Wizard Tower slots, and research. Everything costs gold, and not many early things add gold income.

Some other tricks:
+ Focus your mastery research. You earn the same total amount of research either way.
But leveling up your masteries 1 at a time gets you some L2 bonuses sooner.

+ Switch your search-bonus Followers to Search provinces ASAP, to reveal dungeons.

+ See the pinned Basic Guide thread, Reference Manual (WIP) to see all search bonuses

+ Manually log all monster lairs.
Later, you'll clear them out roughly from weakest to strongest.

+ Explore to meet all independent realms on your starting continent.
Prioritize getting all of their trade pacts ASAP, to maximize their total return.
A trade pact usually costs -1,250 gold and pays +50 gold per turn, so 25 turns to break even. Most games will last hundreds of turns, so every trade pact is hugely profitable, and you want them as early as you can buy them.

+ For the Gather Recruits action, prefer to gather the same race as the follower.
Then prefer the most positive race-race relationship from Encyclopedia, World, Cultures.

+ Later, hire more workers (when you can).
Keep every Wizard Tower worker slot full, for the +50 gold each.
Train them with Hunting or Agriculture for +30 food (either one, they do not stack).

Train worker skills for your sites.
Make 1 dedicated Settlement team of 6 workers, who do nothing else.
Make 1 dedicated Fortress team of 3-4 workers, of whom 2 have Construction 1, 1 has Engineering, and 1 has both Construction 1 and Engineering.

+ Send parties to clear dungeons for loot, especially free Masteries as loot.
Choose your parties so that their traits fit each dungeon's challenge tags.
There are also some class mix bonuses, which you can learn the hard way as you go.
For example, 1 Martial class per 3 followers gives you a bonus to Combat challenges, and fewer than that gives you a penalty. That suggests 1 Martial in a party of 3, or 2 in a full party of 6, or 1 Martial solo in a combat-heavy dungeon.

+ As you finish searching your starting continent, sail.
At some point, commit your 1st wave of searchers to float across the sea.
Land units are slow, paying full MP to move 1 sea hex per turn. Start early, be patient.
Flyers are fast at only 2 MP per sea hex. Most masteries don't have a summons with Flight, or can't wait for it.

+ If independent realms form an unbroken wall that cuts your starting continent in half, you shall have to conquer at least 1 of them by force to punch your way through that wall. That's the only way you'll ever be able to settle and claim any of the provinces on the other side.

+ Independent realm pact status is roughly as follows.
- No pact = can't replenish, can't be on or adjacent to their cities, they can raid you
- Non-Aggression Pact = can't replenish, can't be on or adjacent, they don't raid you
- Ally = can replenish on or adjacent to their cities and fortresses, they don't get mad
- Vassal = as Ally, plus you earn some of their income

Being in water, or being across a province border, doesn't count as adjacent.
Fortresses don't count as cities. You can sit on or adjacent to a fortress with no pact, and they won't get mad.

+ Read the Reference Manual (WIP), Siege Mechanics, to learn how to speed up sieges.
+ In-game, browse Encyclopedia, every tab and topic, for a trove of information.
Some of it is useful

[Solomon]

Awesome thanks for all the additional info.

[simpkin_11]

If you have or can get an early cleric in a decent deity, make sure you do some daily offerings to gain enough favor to bless your farm and resource producing hexes. Seems to give a decent bonus.

[Gilmoy]

Yes. This is another burden on your gold bottleneck, with a tantalizing payoff.
At some point, add new Followers to your shopping list.

+ Pause, browse Encyclopedia, World, Deities.
For each Deity, check their hex conditions, and their offerings preferences.

+ Check for new followers, at least every 10 turns.
If none fit your wants, use your free recycle action every 10 turns to churn new ones.

+ Any Religious follower can make Divine Offerings.
Look for followers of those Deity that give useful hex conditions:
+Hallowed for below-ground sites (Farm, Mine, Quarry)
+Primal for above-ground sites (Logging Camp, Hunting Lodge, Vineyard, Fae Garden)
Hire at least 1 of each ASAP, and have them do only this.

+ Any Artisan follower can make Diplomatic Gifts.
This improves indie realms' Regard to(ward) +100, with zero reaction from other indies.
High Regard enables Non-Aggression, Ally, and Vassal, and improves the income of your Trade Pact. Gift Gold is fraught because other indies react negatively, summing to a net loss in total Regard.

+ Any Arcane follower can fill your Wizard's Apprentice office.
+ Any follower with Stealth can sabotage cities for loot and siege bonus.

Followers can also recruit Leaders from cities (neutral, AI, or friendly).
In midgame, you could also browse every city Leader's trainable skills to find a savant who trains Agriculture 4 or similar, then assign some followers to pester her until she joins.